Hunt #10- Almost-birthday hunt

The best  birthday present I can receive is a day out with my hounds. Hunting. Not hound exercise or hound walking. And honestly, this time of the season it is always hard for my hunting friends to be able to accomodate.  Most of the corn is usually down by now , and this time period from mid-September until October 1st can, in some years, be a down time as we wait for Delaware foxhunting to come into season on that first day of the tenth month. 

However, rain received on Tuesday prevented the harvest of the last stand of corn in our cubbing area. But all of the fields around this one last stand are down now.  And as soon as this last corn is dry enough it ,too, will be history.  It was decided to hunt this morning,  just in case the combines appear later in the day.

We had the same number of hounds ( 12 couple) meet @ 4:25am ,  and the weather conditions were the same as the past couple of hunts- 52 degrees @ 4:00am, but dropping to 48 degrees by dawn.  Still no moon overhead, and the star-filled sky became a little spooky as I listened to George Noury's "Coast-toCoast" guest  ramble on about the real possibility of major  changes in the earths' magnetic fields due to solar flares  and the subsequent consequences there of  .  (Hint: Dig your tunnel now for underground habitation for 2-3 years in the not-too-distant-future.LOL)  Some of George's  guests really creep me out while I'm driving on a back country road in the dark @ 4am... But I digress....

Hounds took awhile to find their pilot- it was 4:40 when  old Reno began to tongue and 4:45 when Freddy's hounds put in to help her, followed by the others. They trailed this fox  through the corn, across the lane, and clear over to the little branch.  Once there, they got him up and on the move , but Charles chose to stay in the branch the entire time, circling around the cornfields clockwise and in the direction of the overgoin. He was a spooked fox, and pulled some very clever moves to put distance between his brush and the pack. He crossed the stream at least twice before he  even got to the overgoin, causing a couple of brief checks as the hounds followed through the water. He then crossed  the water right at the overgoin, continuing to run clockwise, but now along the edge of the fields rather than down in the branch.  At about 5:10, he pointed his mask back into the corn, after  having completed an entire run around the circumference of the fields. 

And then, it just blew up.  This fox had earned himself a good lead  by his evasive tactics of crossing back and forth through the water in the little branch and the pack just couldn't get back up on him.  We could hear hounds coming down the lane towards us. I blew my horn one time, and suddenly they were all there. It was only 5:30. I am just so thrilled that Reilly and my other bitches are always right to me, and now, Bobby's hounds come flying to my horn, too. Even Part-Time!!

We could have tried for another fox.  But both Bobby and I had knowledge that that could definitely end with us being somewhere we didnt want to be ( I didnt say we viewed two foxes near the paved road earlier, now did I?!) , and opted to not make another draw.  Besides, Freddy had to go to work....


Fortunately, once October 1st arrives I wont be having George Noury for company on the way to the meets- we will be moving the times back to 8am and his radio program will be long over.  ....And I can sleep until 5am ....And I can finally start bringing a horse.

The day before ( Wed) was spa day for Bobby's hounds-  they got bathed, dipped, wormed and a stinky ear treated.  They are so clean here!! Didnt last long, since today's fox dragged them through the branch.